


Alex's Poker Night

by wishful_stargazer



Series: JATP: Stories From The Poker Table [2]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Backstory, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Friendship/Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:35:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28963272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wishful_stargazer/pseuds/wishful_stargazer
Summary: In the aftermath of their playful night of poker, Luke and the rest of the Phantom family find out about Alex's first game of strip poker, and that leads to a discussion of Alex's first love.
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Luke Patterson/Alex Mercer
Series: JATP: Stories From The Poker Table [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2124372
Comments: 8
Kudos: 68





	1. Alex

**Author's Note:**

> When I wrote "Poker Night With The Phantoms" a few days ago, it was with every intention of it being a one-off. But someone noticed Alex's little throwaway line of “What, you’ve never played strip poker before?” and said they'd love that story. 
> 
> Well, the idea took root in my psyche and then I had to write it.

Julie was hurrying down the garden stairs, all too aware that she was late for band practice. Luke had turned into a bit of a tyrant lately and she didn’t want to give him any extra ammunition to grumble at her.

Even as she had that thought, though, she rejected it and slowed down. She was NOT going to rush in like she’d done something wrong. Luke Patterson could wait 10 minutes.  _ The guy doesn’t eat or sleep or get older...what else is he doing with his time? _ She grinned to herself, shifted the backpack on her right shoulder, and made herself take a deep breath before opening the garage door.

As it happened, though, Luke was not only not waiting to give her static for her tardiness, but he didn’t even notice when she walked in. She hummed with irritation under her breath. He was standing very close to Alex and almost shouting in his face.

“Evan? Seriously? Evan? Man, I KNEW that guy was bad news. What the heck, Alex?”

“He was NOT bad news.”

“HOW can you say that after what he did? That bum never called you again after he left for Berkeley...after you were practically inseparable for a whole year!”

“It’s fine, Luke. And I’d appreciate it if we didn’t have to have this conversation AGAIN in front of the band and at the tops of our lungs.”

“Guys?” Julie broke in. She raised her eyebrows at Alex. “Who’s Evan?”

Luke could hardly believe it. After their poker game a few nights ago he still hadn’t completely recovered from the memory of Julie’s lips brushing lightly over his cheek...his shoulder...the center of his chest. He replayed it over and over: the soft flick of her lips, the delicate brush of her hair, the molten chocolate of her eyes. In his most guiltily smothered thoughts, he even let himself imagine her kissing his stomach and lower back the same way. He could practically feel her pressing a kiss to the base of his spine. And it made him feel like he just might pass out on the spot. Kind of like hearing her voice had started to do when he wasn’t prepared for it. Which at the moment, he wasn’t.  _ Pull yourself together, Patterson. _

He bit his lip and turned to face her.

“Evan is Alex’s ex...who apparently thought it was okay to entice Alex into strip poker with all of his older friends...when Alex was only a freshman!”

“Whoa, whoa, wait, stop, Luke,” Alex held up his left hand, still holding a drumstick. “That is not…” he sighed with exasperation. “It wasn’t like that. I tried…” his voice faded, and the shadow of a smile flittered briefly across his face. “I’ve tried to tell you before. Will you listen to me this time?”

Julie looked from one to the other, “Should I go?” she asked hesitantly. 

Alex snorted. “Are you kidding? Please stay. I may need you to help wrestle Luke into submission.”

Luke squinted at him. “I’ll listen, but I don’t know what you’re going to say that makes you think I’ll change my mind about this guy.”

Alex squinted right back before swinging his head toward Julie. “Bet you never figured Luke for a total Puritan, did you?” He glanced back at Luke. “It’s not like we never played Truth or Dare or mooned the principal or you never french kissed Nicole Willis AND Andrea Ito...at the same time.”

Luke could feel himself turning bright red.  _ Okay, that’s it, Alex dies tonight.  _

Julie just raised her eyebrows at him. “Nicole and....Andrea, hmm? We’ll have to come back to them later.” She dropped her backpack to the floor and then plopped down on the couch. Alex stood up from behind the drums, walked over, flung himself down in the middle and put his right arm around her shoulder. Both of them looked up at Luke expectantly. 

Luke sat down on the other side of Alex and slumped into his “sulk” position. Alex wrapped his left arm around Luke’s shoulders and hugged him close. “You are such a moron,” he murmured affectionately.

Luke decided maybe Alex could live. As long as Julie forgot to revisit the subject of Nicole and Andrea.


	2. Evan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex makes a new friend.

Feeling like a complete fraud, Alex hovered nervously behind the four timpani. He still wasn’t sure there hadn’t been some kind of mistake. When his parents had insisted he audition for the junior/senior symphonic orchestra, he had tried his best, but didn’t expect much. A freshman winning one of the coveted spots was rare enough...but as a drummer? There were at least five times as many drummers in the school marching band as there were available seats in the orchestra. 

Alex had assumed he would be in band camp filling out the drumline along with everyone else from his middle school. Apparently the school music director had made a different decision.

“Alex, right?” He heard a cheerful voice behind him and turned around. A handsome older boy was standing there, his curly brown/blond hair just slightly slicked back, his dark eyes sparkling. He was maybe an inch or two shorter than Alex’s 5’10”, but the cool confidence in his shoulders and posture made Alex somehow feel like HE was the one looking up at the guy. “I’m Evan, the principal percussionist.” He stuck out his right hand for Alex to shake. “Director Patel played your audition tape for me this morning. You are completely sick, you know that?”

Alex took Evan’s warm, slightly callused palm and shook hands, trying not to lose his cool at the compliment. “Thanks,” he muttered, not quite able to meet the other boy’s eyes. “I was definitely surprised when I got chosen.” 

Evan laughed. “Not nearly as surprised as Patel. Or me, for that matter.” He shrugged apologetically. “Half the reason I got to hear your tape was because I kept giving him a hard time about taking a freshman. More fool me. I should have known.” 

“I still have a lot to learn,” Alex ventured hesitatingly. “I may be gone in a week,” he tried to make a joke out of it, but somehow it came out more like a plea for reassurance than the casual comment he was going for.

“Not gonna happen,” Evan contradicted him. “For a guy that plays like you, this will be a breeze. There are two more of us, but they drive in together and are never here until the last second. We usually hang out after the first day of school and play around with the new music and then go grab burgers. That okay with you?”

“Sure,” Alex nodded, making a mental note to call his mom at lunch. “If I can grab a ride home with someone?”

“No problem, I can drop you off. Oh, the joys of freshman life and not having a car,” Evan winked at him, and Alex felt a little shiver travel up his spine.

*****

Sitting in the passenger seat of Evan’s car, Alex, leaned his head back and closed his eyes for a second. It had been an unexpectedly good first day of school. After orchestra first period and French second period, he’d been happily surprised to find Luke and Bobby in his third hour homeroom. That meant that they would be in the same lunch group. Reggie had been left to fend for himself. When Alex and Luke met up in fifth period English,though, Luke had whispered that Reggie ended up sitting with his soccer team and half the cheerleading squad. 

“Rough life, right?” he had elbowed Alex in the stomach. “Leave it to Reg.”

“Definitely,” Alex had agreed. “Hey, I got stuff to do with the orchestra drummers after school today. Can we meet up tomorrow afternoon?”

Luke had blinked twice, then nodded. “Sure, no problem, Alex. Extra practice already?”

“Something like that, yeah,” Alex hedged. “I think it’s at least partly a bonding thing too, though.”

“Well, go get bonded or whatever,” Luke joked, “but tomorrow I want to talk about starting our band.”

The percussionist section had definitely bonded. Alex had listened in awe to the others play, and although he felt shy, they managed to persuade him to solo. When he finished, the two non-Evans in the group (Pete and Jasmine) were staring, mouths hanging open. Jasmine was the first to recover the power of speech. “Okay, Evan, you win. I owe you twenty bucks. Dangit, blondie, where did Patel find YOU?”

Pete settled for just applauding. Alex blushed and stared down at the timpani, running his hands over it with reverence. So beautiful.

“Earth to Alex, come in, Alex!” Alex sat up straight and opened his eyes to find that Evan was waving his right hand in front of his face.

“Everything okay over there?”

“Oh, yeah,” Alex sat up straight and swallowed. “Everything’s great. Thanks for the burger and shake.” 

Evan glanced over at him. “Believe me, the pleasure was ALL mine.” There was something in his voice that caught Alex’s attention. He turned toward the senior. Evan was smiling at him affectionately, and his eyes were gentle. “After all, you’re a very, very handsome guy Alex.” He kissed his fingertips and brushed them against the inside of Alex’s wrist. “See you tomorrow.”


	3. Alex and Evan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At a party with his orchestra friends, Alex raises the stakes.

“I don’t see why I can’t come over with you guys,” Alex complained. In the months since he’d joined the orchestra, Alex and Evan had turned into pretty close friends, spending a lot of time together, both in school and outside of it. 

One thing continued to frustrate him. Evan was always touching him, Alex, with that kind of casual intensity that somehow seemed both friendly and intimate. He would exuberantly hug Alex after one of them mastered a difficult piece of music. He would occasionally kiss his cheek when he dropped Alex off at home. He would spend hours playing the xylophone or talking passionately about beats and rhythms, running his fingers through his own hair until the immaculate style he maintained was completely disheveled. Then he’d mess up Alex’s and claim Alex wasn’t allowed to look better than he did. And when Alex’s nerves got the better of him before a performance, he would “read” Alex’s palm, delicately tracing the lines in his hand and pretending that those lines guaranteed a successful concert. 

Alex wasn’t sure the palm thing did much for his nerves. But it certainly put the rest of him on high alert. Best of all were the neck and shoulder rubs at the end of extended practice sessions. The percussionists would all line up in no particular order and rub the pains away, then reverse the line and do it all again. 

Whenever Alex wasn’t practicing with Luke and the band, he was with some combination of Evan, Evan and Pete, Evan and Pete and Jasmine, or Jasmine or Jasmine and Pete. He certainly spent enough time with them to figure out that the physical reactions he was having were not being elicited by Jasmine or Pete. Only Evan.

“Look, Alex, this is an older crowd. You’d be welcome, but it might not be exactly your scene. There will be drinking and--”

“How young do you think I am?” Alex interjected. He’d certainly drunk before. Not OFTEN but he had. 

“I just wouldn’t want you to ever feel put in a position that made you feel uncomfortable, Alex,” Evan said, looking conflicted.

Alex wasn’t sure where the confidence came from to do it, but suddenly he felt about twelve feet tall. He leaned well into Evan’s personal space and whispered, “Why don’t you let me worry about that?” 

Evan’s eyes widened. “Okay, you win. Jasmine’s house Friday, 9 pm.”

*****

Definitely not his usual scene. Alex tilted his head in time to the beat and sipped nervously from the red plastic cup in his hand. Evan had made him promise to make the drink last and not have another one. Truth be told, Alex was fine with that. He’d just keep refilling the cup with water. If he didn’t mention as much to Evan, well, let Evan worry a little. Evan had decided that he was going to pick Alex up for the party. Which was great, except on the drive over, Evan kept coming up with new “rules” for he, Alex, to follow: 

_ Stay in the main part of the party.  _

_ Check in with me regularly. _

_ Don’t drink too much. _

_ Stay off the back porch where the smokers all congregate. _

_ Don’t join any games where you don’t know the rules. _

Alex had been about two seconds from telling Evan that he had already had a mom and wasn’t looking for another when they pulled up to the house, which was sparkling with lights and ready for Christmas, even though the temperature had hit 72 that afternoon.

As Alex sipped from the cup, though, he wished he’d invited Luke or Reggie to come with him. Knowing hardly anyone in the room was feeling a bit weird. 

“Hey, Alex!” Pete greeted him loudly.

“Hi, Pete! What’s up?”

“Jasmine put me in charge of noise control tonight,” Pete boasted. “Got to keep it down. In this neighborhood they love to call the cops.”

Alex glanced around him. The speakers were blasting a deafening level of music into the large room. In the kitchen three blenders were roaring. By the fireplace, six or seven people were downing shots and yelling loudly after each one. On the back lawn behind the sliding glass doors, someone had set up a boombox pounding out bass...a different rhythm from what was playing inside.

“You’re doing a great job,” he remarked. 

Irony was wasted on Pete, though. He nodded happily, then drank deeply from his cup. From the looks of it, it was definitely NOT Pete’s first.

“Hey, Alex, you play poker?” Pete suddenly asked.

“Some, yeah, why?” 

“Evan said that they might be starting a game upstairs. Wanna come with me and see if we can find him?”

Alex’s head buzzed.  _ Stay in the main part of the party, _ he could hear Evan saying. Then again,  _ come find me on a regular basis, _ he could ALSO hear Evan saying. Alex decided that given conflicting instructions, he could indulge his own preferences. And he preferred to find Evan with Pete. “Sure, Pete, sounds great.” They crossed the room toward the staircase. “Hang on a sec, Pete,” Alex called out impulsively. He stopped off at the fireplace, accepted a shot from one of the girls there and quickly downed it. Whoa. Whatever that was, it was intense. Intensely cinnamon and intensely strong. He stared down into the empty glass, feeling a bit surprised.

“Another?” she offered, and he almost nodded. Then he glanced around and realized Pete had already started up the stairs. “I’m good, thanks” he replied before rushing off. Pleased at his small act of rebellion, Alex headed to the second floor, noticing he was feeling a bit giddy, but otherwise okay.

Nobody had turned on the lights above the stairs or hallway, so Alex felt his way along with the stair railing. He also caught Pete from behind, who twice missed a step. Alex was gradually becoming more confident that the current cup was not Pete’s first, second, OR third of the evening.

“I see a light!” Pete exclaimed. “Let’s go, blond-I mean, Alex.” Alex had spent weeks making it clear that he would accept blondie from Jasmine, but nobody else. Somehow when she said it, it sounded respectful. 

Pete stumbled down the hall, pounded on the door, opened it, and fell in. Alex rushed forward to save him from falling on his face, and stared into the eyes of a very surprised and VERY shirtless Evan.

Who was staring at Alex in shock.

Alex wondered if he should be irritated. Evan had been low key flirting with HIM since September and now here he is upstairs taking his clothes off with a bunch of seniors and college students. Mostly though, he wanted to giggle. Evan looked so...stunned. And maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was Evan’s expression, but Alex suddenly felt...powerful.

“This is what all you older kids get up to when you’re left without babysitters? Strip poker?” he shook his head. “What’s the game?”

“Five card draw,” a lightly freckled guy with coppery hair and truly stunning blue eyes replied. “You want in?”

“How would that work, exactly,” Evan objected. “We’ve already been playing for a while.”

Alex tucked his tongue firmly inside his cheek. “Well, then clearly, the only fair thing for me to do is catch up.” He slipped his t-shirt over his head and kicked off his shoes, leaving his socks. He turned back around quickly enough to catch Evan checking him out. Evan looked appalled.  _ Who knew?  _ Alex mused.  _ Torturing Evan may just be my new favorite thing. _

A couple of girls made room for him on the floor and he seated himself in the circle. “Rules?” 

The girl on his left said “Five cards, players draw once, up to three cards can be discarded and replaced with no ace, can replace up to four if you DO have an ace. Everyone must ante every deal, winner can put his or her ante back on. One round of betting or folding before the draw, one after, then reveal.”

“Sounds standard so far.”

The girl on his right added, “It mostly is...but for the win, only hands of a pair of tens or higher play. And deuces are wild.”

“New rule,” Evan broke in. Everyone turned their attention to him.“Winning hands of a straight or better can put an article of clothing back on.”

The copper haired guy made a tsk-ing sound. “Not sure where the fun is in THAT,” before sipping from his red cup.

Alex had an inspiration. “Let’s compromise. Two ways people can get dressed. You can win the hand with a straight or higher...or you can kiss the winner of the hand.” Evan’s jaw dropped.  _ Oh, YES, thought Alex, DEFINITELY my new favorite thing. _

*****

It was down to the two of them. Alex had anted with his baseball cap the first round and lost, then won a couple of hands in a row before losing his socks, necklace, and watch. He was feeling surprisingly comfortable seated there in just his jeans and bare feet, and he was REALLY enjoying the way Evan’s eyes kept sliding in his direction. He was also really enjoying the display of Evan’s biceps.

Evan had folded early a couple of times, then lost big when his two pair ran into three kings. Alex had expected him to fold when he bet this time, but Evan had eyed him consideringly and then said “call.”

Alex tabled his hand: “Two pair: aces and tens.”

Evan tossed his cards in the center. “I’m not stripping for your viewing pleasure, Mercer, so I guess I’m working it off.” Down to just his boxer shorts, he leaned across the circle, and captured Alex’s lips in a hard, greedy kiss. “Mmmm,” he murmured against Alex’s lips. “You taste like honey and cinnamon,” and the kiss slowly morphed into a gentle sipping at each other’s lips, ending in an erotically naughty nibble.

They finally separated...and discovered the other poker players eyeing them with amusement and curiosity. Copper-haired guy and girl-on-left were both fanning themselves. “Is it getting warm in here?” she asked mischievously. 

“Time to go,” Evan stated in a tone that did not invite discussion. He grabbed his khakis and belt, slipping into them while Alex hunted up his watch and other belongings. The rest of the players circled around for the next deal.

“Hey!” girl-on-right interjected as Evan was pulling Alex out of the bedroom door (by his hand!) She was holding five cards. “You had nothing, Evan Halifax! You called with a pair of fives...that hand doesn’t even play!”

Whoops, laughter, and scattered applause erupted around the room. Alex cleared his throat and looked at Evan.

“Yep,” Evan said. “Definitely time to go.”


	4. Alex and Luke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex finishes the story of his first love.

"...And that’s how it was,” Alex finished. “Nobody enticed me anywhere or lured me into anything. I had a crush and I drank a little and I went looking for him. And nobody was more surprised about it than Evan was.”

“He left you alone at a party...where you didn’t know anybody...to go play strip poker…” Luke grumbled. 

Alex looked over at Julie. “I’m going to ask for an unbiased ruling on this.” 

Julie laughed. “I mean, maybe he could have been a bit more attentive, but seriously, Luke, you’re not going to stick with this whole ‘took advantage of my friend’ thing, are you?”

“I was there, you weren’t,” Luke protested. “They were so wrapped up in each other it was like they became one person. And then he left for college and Alex was depressed for weeks and Evan didn’t so much as call him or come to visit even once!”

“I WAS sad when he left, but we always knew it was coming, Luke, and even if he hadn’t left, we were never--we didn’t--” Alex found that he couldn’t quite say it. He didn’t want his friends to think badly of him.

“It wasn’t romantic?” Julie asked softly. 

“Well, it had elements of romance,” Alex whispered, more to himself than to them. “I mean, we had to be super careful that my parents never felt a trace of anything between us besides being musician friends. And he started picking me up and driving me to school every morning so we could talk in private. Mostly about me, some about him, a little about him at my age. That kind of thing. And being with him felt so incredibly good. Like I could just be me. And be valued for it. For just being me.”

“And the kissing?” Julie asked, a little too innocently. “Did that continue? Because frankly the way you described it was...um,” she cast an apologetic glance at Luke. “Super hot.”

Alex laughed. “Yes, the kissing continued. But never anything more than that. I was three years younger than he was and he was going to college in nine months and the kissing was pretty much as much as I could handle.” He licked his lips, then smiled with a very small, very private twinkle. And Alex’s already impossibly handsome face seemed to glow from within.

“Look at that!” Luke gestured indignantly toward his friend’s radiant expression. “He says it’s all just kissing and not romantic and he didn’t get his heart broken and then he looks all like THAT about him.”

Julie tilted her head. “I’m not sure that’s the expression I’d be wearing over someone that broke my heart,” she said, eyeing Alex consideringly. 

Luke snorted. “Obviously, not. Julie, you’d go looking for the guy with a butcher knife. But this is ALEX.”

And then Luke felt like he had stepped in something. Because the small private smile had dropped from Alex’s face and had been replaced by an expression of blossoming understanding. Julie meanwhile was raising her eyebrows at Luke and clearly wondering if she should be insulted by his characterization of her personality.

“Um, I think you have me and Flynn confused,” Julie started.

“I’m back! Did you miss me?” Reggie called from the door. “Flynn’s on her way over, too. She called me her ‘eye candy’ today. And I’m pretty sure she even knew I was there!”

“Time for band practice,” Luke said with relief. “Finally Free?”

Julie and Alex exchanged glances. “As appropriate as that song choice might be to current circumstances,” Julie started. 

“I want to finish this,” Alex finished. Turning toward Luke, he took both of Luke’s hands in his.

“Did I come in at a bad time?” Reggie asked.

“Don’t worry about it, Reg,” Alex answered him, still looking deeply into Luke’s hazel eyes. “Luke, I…I never fell in love with Evan. And he wasn’t in love with me. He said he might have been able to get there, but he always knew that it was impossible. Because I crushed on him sure, but at that time in my life, you had my whole heart. Locked up. Untouchable. Unbreakable. But I wasn’t ready to tell you.”

*****

Luke felt his stomach twist. He remembered that year only too well. Freaking Evan with his perfect hair and perfectly ironed khakis and driving Alex all over town in his perfect car. And any time they thought nobody could see them they’d start kissing until Luke expected one of them to fall over in a dead faint from lack of oxygen. And Alex, who was nervous on a good day, suddenly coming out with all this sarcastic humor out of nowhere. He was freaking hilarious. Where had that been hiding? Alex and Evan disappearing for ten minutes and then re-emerging looking all smug and mussed with red swollen lips. God, they were so OBVIOUS about it all the time.

“So you were in love with me, and your solution for what to do about it was to” he could feel his voice getting higher and higher and he hated that, hated what he was revealing and in front of Julie of all people but he couldn’t stop it, “kiss somebody else? For a freaking YEAR?”

“You know what?” Reggie said, “I should really go make sure Carlos made it home okay.” He vanished in a poof of silver.

Alex’s blue eyes were filled with understanding. “, Look, I barely knew it myself. Evan had to point it out to me after spring break. And I hadn’t come out to the band yet...and it was so...it was complicated. What I had with Evan was always just easy. And safe. And caring. And warm.”

“Well, I don’t know why you thought you had to “come out” to the band after you and Evan started living in each other’s pockets anyway,” Luke retorted, although not nearly as fiercely. “You guys were about as subtle as a fireworks display. You could have tattooed a rainbow on your chest and not been one single bit clearer.”

“Anyway, I am so, so sorry if Evan and I were hurting you. I had everything that year. I had you and my friends from the band and from the orchestra and I had Evan and all these new sensations and experiences. It was...totally intoxicating. And, yes, sure, when Evan left I missed him. I missed kissing him and talking about rhythm with him and I missed the way he looked at me and the way he held me. He gave me the best year of my life.

“Until he left that August. And then I finally got up the nerve to tell you I loved you right before Thanksgiving vacation. And your family went to Sedona and I lived in complete and total agony for four days until you came back and told me you loved me too. And then THAT was the very best year of my life. Evan was never any kind of threat to me. Or to you. Evan taught me enough about myself that I could see what I had. In you. That I could see how much I loved you, and how much a part of me you were. And that I could trust that and share it because no matter whether you loved me too, you would NEVER willingly hurt me.

“I cared about Evan. He cared about me. I still care about him. And when he emailed me at the beginning of his sophomore year at Berkeley and told me he’d met his One...a theater major… I was happy for him. Completely, unreservedly, sincerely happy for him. Because even if you and I weren’t going to be together forever (and by that point I think we both knew it) I had experienced being in love with you. And there’s nothing like it. Nothing else in the world.” He suddenly grinned. “Not even in the afterlife, as far as I’ve noticed.”

Julie sniffled, and Luke was flabbergasted to see she was crying. “Hug it out, you two idiots,” she said, wiping her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, comments? I am really curious to hear what you all think. Did you anticipate where I was going? Or did you think he was going to fall hard for Evan? Anything I could have done better?


End file.
